CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



these cases, as before, a product of nature is used, 

 which, from its limited supply, already possessed 

 exchangeable value ; but to it labour or human 

 agency has been added, and the result is a pro- 

 duct partly the result of limited natural agencies, 

 and partly the result of labour each of which 

 elements gives it a measure of exchangeable 

 value. That portion of the market value assignable 

 to labour goes to pay wages, profits, and partly 

 interest of capital ; the portion assignable to the 

 forces of nature usually takes the form of rent, 

 occasionally also that of tributes and taxation. 

 A man occupies rent free 100 acres of land of 

 indifferent quality, and finds he can by his labour 

 raise thereon 100 quarters of wheat a year; but he 

 hears of another lot of 100 acres of better quality, 

 from which, with the same labour, he can raise 300 

 quarters of wheat a year. Of the latter ground, 

 however, the owner will not let him have the use 

 without compensation, and asks 150 quarters of 

 wheat per annum of rent. This rent the farmer 

 cheerfully gives, as it still leaves him 50 quarters 

 a year better than he was with the inferior soil. 

 Now, in so far as the superior productiveness of 

 the second lot of land was attributable to the 

 labour of cultivation previously spent upon it, the 

 rent was truly part of the price of such labour 

 accumulated into fixed capital ; but in so far as 

 the superiority of the soil arose from natural 

 qualities, the rent was the exchangeable value of a 

 limited natural product. The rent of a rich mine 

 of coal or metallic ore, or of a water-fall, is to be 

 regarded as almost entirely the value of a natural 

 product, as the richness of the one and the mo- 

 mentum of the other have their source in the 

 agency of nature, not in the agency of man. 



These remarks on the products of nature imply 

 ownership that some one or more persons have 

 the power of retaining them in their possession, 

 or of dictating the terms on which they may be 

 used by others. Jewels are owned commonly by 

 the finders. Land was in early ages seized and 

 appropriated by force ; now, ownership is for the 

 most part determined by usage and law, which 

 the orderly citizen observes from prudence and 

 duty, and the disorderly and the alien are com- 

 pelled to observe by police and military power. 

 Exceptional cases occur where the products 

 of nature have not been made the subject of 

 ownership ; and in such instances the commodity 

 possesses no exchangeable value. The most re- 

 markable example of this exception is the ocean 

 or high sea, which, unlike the land, is open to 

 every one to make use of as he chooses. Had 

 pirates contented themselves with asking from 

 trading-vessels a moderate toll, and backed their 

 demand by good organisation, the nations might 

 have submitted to the exaction, and pirates been 

 still owners of the ocean ; but piracy having for 

 the most part degenerated into indiscriminate 

 robbery, nations have united to hunt it down. 



Of Labour. 



It is said that, in some tropical lands, vege- 

 tation is so abundant, compared with popula- 

 tion, and the indigenous plants so productive of 

 human food, that the prime necessary of life 

 approaches' universal diffusion, and almost ceases 

 to have exchangeable value ; and certainly clothing 

 and housing, in such a climate, cease to be a 

 necessity, and are scarcely a luxury. But in most 



communities, the wants of the people far excee 

 the supplies offered by unassisted nature. In 

 these circumstances the circumstances men are 

 usually placed in it is found that, by labour, the 

 productive power of nature may be very much 

 increased. We may increase the supply of com- 

 modities wanted by fetching them from a distance ; 

 we may increase the fertility of the soil by cultiva- 

 tion ; we may change artificially the properties 

 of natural products, and render productive and 

 fit for use what was formerly useless. 



Were labour in itself, whatever its aim, so 

 agreeable to man as to be pursued for its own 

 sake, the whole community would unite in pro- 

 ducing and scattering broadcast the necessaries 

 and luxuries of life in unlimited measure. For 

 the pleasure of labour alone, we should readily 

 work for ourselves and for our neighbours, no 

 matter how hard the work. But man is not so 

 constituted. Labour is naturally disagreeable, 

 and we are averse to undertake more of it than 

 we can help, or than directly ministers to the 

 gratification of our desires. This characteristic 

 marks human nature throughout. Whoever does 

 not need to labour for his bread, will not, in the 

 general case, labour for others, except for the 

 maintenance of his own family; and this is equally 

 true of the tropical islander and the refined aris- 

 tocrat, and is still more forcibly true of those 

 whose main strength is used up by their more 

 pressing needs, and who are glad, therefore, to 

 taste the pleasures of leisure in the few hours left 

 over from their daily toil. 



It is on the principle now set forth that most of 

 the special laws of political economy depend it 

 is one of the dynamic axioms owing to which the 

 movements of society fall under the cognisance of 

 political economy, and from which the applied 

 laws of that science are deducible. 



As proximate laws of labour, we may set down 

 the following : 



1. That, if there be any other lawful means of 

 obtaining a supply of the necessaries of life, a man 

 will prefer resorting to those means, rather than 

 resorting to labour. 



2. That, when necessary, he will, in general, 

 give such amount of labour, and of such a kind, 

 as will bring to him a supply of the necessaries of 

 life. 



3. That, while doing so, he will strive that that 

 labour shall be as light as possible, and be other- 

 wise as agreeable as possible. 



4. That, in general, man will not labour either* 

 in a large measure or in a very disagreeable 

 manner, unless it be absolutely necessary thereby 

 to secure the necessaries of life and the measure 

 of comfort or luxury common to his rank. 



5. That, in some circumstances, man will labour 

 for the sake of enjoying the luxuries of life. 



6. That, according as the nature of the labour 

 becomes less disagreeable, there is a tendency to 

 augment labour, with the view of obtaining in- 

 creased command of luxuries. 



7. That, in general, it is a necessary inducem 

 for labour that it tend directly to the perso 

 advantage or gratification of the labourer. 



8. That, in proportion as the labour beconn 

 absolutely pleasurable, the labourer, if his supply 

 of the necessaries and ordinary luxuries of life is 

 otherwise secured, tends to dispense with the con- 

 dition that the produce of his labour shall conduce 



